


coldest winter

by lilactreesinwinter



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Christmas, M/M, Phandom Fic Fests, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 20:30:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17029512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilactreesinwinter/pseuds/lilactreesinwinter
Summary: Excerpt:The door swung open and Dan stumbled through. From night into day, from coldest winter into most tropical summer. His exposed fingers and cheeks immediately began to thaw painfully, and he started sweating under his layers as he blinked his eyes against the lights. He squinted and saw someone stood against the counter at the back of the shop, looking up at him from where they had been perusing their phone.





	coldest winter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CanDanAndPhilNot (EnbyBeeGee)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnbyBeeGee/gifts).



Dan set his foot down, and all traction disappeared from under his sole for about the billionth time today. He was getting quite used to the jolt in his lower back and his knees as he rocked to maintain his balance. He sighed and his frustration bloomed in a white cloud about his face, quickly absorbed by the air all around him that was solid with cold. He was passing under what appeared to be one of the last streetlights in town. He expected the sidewalk, with its uncertain tunnel through the foot-deep snow and hidden patches of ice, to disappear soon as well.

When he had come to this university for a fellowship year, it had still been hot summer, and he hadn't paid any attention to admonitions about New England seasonality, about how cold and snowy the winter was likely to be. He had arrived with a minimum of possessions, bragging to anyone who would listen that he could live out of a single suitcase for an entire year—especially a year spent essentially on the road, in a place where he intended to put down no roots. Just as hot, muggy summer days could be dodged by going from one air-conditioned building to another, his jacket would be enough to protect him on the rare occasions he needed to be outside on chilly winter nights.

As the sodium-tinged lamplight faded behind him, blue moonlight took over illuminating the tiny errant snowflakes that refused to settle out of the air as the arctic wind exhaled gently, stilling for the night, allowing the cold it had brought to press all the way down to the ground. The sun had set hours ago and would be kept at bay for many hours to come by one of the longest nights of the year.

Dan had learned very quickly—by Halloween, in fact—that his single-suitcase wardrobe would be no match for the weather. Trick or treating had been postponed by a sudden, fierce snowstorm that had frosted the flaming carpet of autumn leaves before melting them into a treacherous organic slurry underfoot. As the calendar turned to November, everything froze, and the cold hadn't really let up since.

Now that it was December, Dan was decked in a full complement of winter clothes. (He would need another entire suitcase for them, but he wasn't planning to take them with him when he left this place—long before the next winter came around.) His boots had thick soles and fleecy interiors, he had thickly-lined waterproof gloves on his hands, and a wooly hat was pulled down over his ears. He wore an impressive down jacket, rated for temperatures to below zero Fahrenheit, and he had even been talked into some high-tech winter storm pants, with complicated fastenings meant to keep out any cold air.

He hadn't intended to start walking tonight. His usual mode of coping with the void inside himself was to curl around it—draw it under the covers with him or press it against the floor beneath him, or fill the hole with food, building careful layers of pizza and bread. The drafty rooms he rented in the old clapboard house near campus were tailor-made for wrapping up in a duvet and calling Dominos, and maybe never emerging till spring. But the cold emptiness outside called to the cold emptiness inside, and he had put on all the gear, black as his soul. The storm pants afforded no good place for keys or a wallet; he nearly left his phone behind as well, but as he went out the door (which he left unlocked), he tucked the phone in the outer zip pocket of his deep-freeze jacket.

As he scuffed across the unplowed entrance to a side road that led to a little covered bridge, Dan realised that he hadn't heard a car pass in some time. The only noise in the frozen night was the beyond-hearing sound reflected off the blanket of snow and the soft squeak of his boots as he kept on walking through it.

He had told himself that a year away from everything he knew would be an adventure of trying new things, as well as an opportunity to dive deeply into his research without undue distractions. The research was going great and—that was it, really. He couldn't think of a single other thing he had done since he had come here. No new things, no adventures. And now it was Christmas Eve and he was walking through the cold night, though he couldn't say why.

It was late enough that most houses had turned off their Christmas decorations, though an occasional string of coloured lights could be seen illuminating the edge of a roof, or a colonial house set back from the road still held a single glowing candle in each of its many windows.

The festive twinkling in the deep night was abruptly disturbed when Dan came around a curve in the road. He could see lights up ahead from a small cluster of buildings which seemed to constitute the next tiny town. One of the storefronts was brilliantly lit by pretty red, green, blue, and gold lights framing a window fully fogged with condensation.

Dan stopped in sudden confusion at this incongruously bright shop that he was pretty sure he had never noticed before. Now that he had stopped walking, he was overwhelmed by fatigue. He wondered how he had managed to walk so far that he no idea where he was. And he had no fucking idea what time it was. He pulled off his glove with his teeth and groped impatiently at the zip of the outer pocket of his jacket to pull out his phone. His fingers already stiffening with cold, he poked his thumb at the home button.

The screen illuminated, but in an instant it went dark and lifeless, before Dan could even read the time. He stared at it in outrage. This walk was a terrible idea and this night was not lovely but cruel and he was freezing his ass off. He didn't know what time it was and he didn't even know where the hell he was, just that he was outside a brightly lit window ruining what just a few minutes ago was the perfect cold and dark of night.

Why was that window so brightly lit anyway? Surely no one would be mucking about in a shop this late on Christmas Eve. Sticking his useless phone back in his useless pocket, he tried to pull his glove back over his frozen fingers. But his other hand was useless in its thick glove. Despairing of getting his outwear back on before his fingers fell off, Dan decided there was nothing to lose in trying the shop's door.

The door swung open and Dan stumbled through. From night into day, from coldest winter into most tropical summer. His exposed fingers and cheeks immediately began to thaw painfully, and he started sweating under his layers as he blinked his eyes against the lights. He squinted and saw someone stood against the counter at the back of the shop, looking up at him from where they had been perusing their phone.

“Hello!” called the figure cheerfully. “You're out a bit late, aren't you?”

Dan managed something like, “Uhhhh.”

Pushing off the counter and pocketing his phone, the man came toward him with a smile. “I didn't think I'd see any customers tonight. What can I get you?”

Now that the snot in his nose had unfrozen, Dan could smell coffee and chocolate and sugar on the warm damp air. It smelled heavenly. This must be a coffee shop, in fact it was probably part of that chain that sold coffee and doughnuts all day to a steady stream of customers. But Dan's mind was still stuck outside, at the moment in which his phone had so unceremoniously failed him.

“My phone died,” he blurted, yanking the offending object out and displaying it on his palm.

The shop proprietor peered at it. “Stick it in your pants.”

“I'm sorry?”

“It's frozen. Your body heat is the best way to warm it back up.” Did he just smirk when he said that?

Dan did as he was told. He opened his jacket and placed the phone against his stomach (if not quite in his pants).

“Sit. You must be frozen too. I'll get you a hot drink and something to eat.” He bustled off, tossing over his shoulder, “I'm Phil, by the way.”

Dan sat. His eyes wandered over the shelves of bagged coffee and mugs, the cases of pastries, the empty tables and chairs. He considered the bland walls with corporate logos that managed to perfectly clash with the colourful holiday decorations. And he looked at the man behind the counter, working the coffee machine and bopping to the Christmas pop softly coming over the speakers.

He dropped his eyes as Phil came toward him, somehow managing to carry two hot drinks in tall paper cups and a plate mounded with an assortment of doughnuts.

“They might be a bit stale, they're from this morning. But I brought you one of each of the kinds we have left, so you can choose. Or eat them all!”

Dan's lips curled up, just a bit, as he looked up again. “Thanks.” Phil hovered, and for a moment Dan was afraid he might leave him with a mountain of doughnuts. “Sit down with me. Please.”

The friendly smile appeared on Phil's face again, and he dropped into the seat opposite, holding his drink. “I made you my favourite drink. It's not really on the menu. It has caramel in it. And chocolate.”

“And loads of whipped cream,” Dan observed, tipping his cup gently into his mouth, wondering if any liquid might make it through the white mass on top. He reached for the nearest doughnut, which had an elaborate drawing of something that might have been an elf in its icing, and which proved to taste like a cross between maple and marzipan. He might soon reach sugar overload.

But he didn't feel cold right now. His hands were wrapped around a warm beverage, he was in a warm room, and there was a warm human being sat opposite him. His brain was starting to catch up with these changes and process what his senses were telling him. And his brain was beginning to form the impression that it rather liked this turn of events. Especially that human being, who just now was tipping his head charmingly while asking for his name.

“Oh, uh, my name is Dan. Um, why are you open so late, anyway?”

Phil seemed pleased to be asked. “I'm studying at the business school here. Everyone needed to do a project this term. I wanted to do something practical, so why not manage a franchise of a big chain coffee shop? My classmates that it was too ordinary and boring. But coffee and doughnuts!” Phil leaned a little closer. “Plus, I'm the only one who has actually made any money.”

Dan nodded and experimented with using his doughnut (he had moved on to a chocolate cruller) to scoop whipped cream out of his cup. “But why stay open so late on Christmas Eve? That can't be a good business move.”

Phil's face fell a bit, and he dropped his gaze to the table. “I couldn't visit my family this year, and I didn't have anywhere else to go. I thought that at least here in the shop it's warm and bright and there are festive decorations. And I definitely won't starve.” Phil looked up again. “And I thought that, you never know, someone might come by.”

As he met Phil's gaze, Dan got a funny feeling in his stomach. His stomach seemed to think that maybe, somehow, Phil had been at the coffee shop waiting for him.

Thinking of his stomach made Dan think of his phone. As he reached to pull it out of his waistband, Phil started to ask his own questions. “Do you live around here? Do you always go walking on winter nights?”

Dan snorted. “I'm at the university too. Just for the year. But—” He was about to say that to enjoy walking in the cold and dark was ridiculous. But that didn't seem quite the point right now. “I like walking sometimes. Especially when it gets me somewhere as nice as this.” He felt as though his cheeks were perhaps a bit redder than they had been just from the cold.

Phil seemed to glow a bit a that, but he continued his interrogation. “So what are you studying?”

“I'm looking at the dialectic between entertainers and their audience. I'm developing a really interesting theory of how the construct 'what the people want' is formed.” Dan stopped. This was more than enough of an answer for most people. But Phil was watching him intently, as though he really wanted to hear more. Feeling encouraged, if also a bit surprised, Dan pulled his phone out to show Phil the most recent example he had found to support his thesis.

His phone's dark screen stared back at him blankly. For a moment he felt a reflection of the emptiness from within him. But before the void could envelop his mind, a gentle voice interrupted his thoughts.

“It should be fine to start up now.”

Dan took a breath and pressed the power button. His phone woke up and set about its business as though nothing bad had happened. Dan felt a smile bloom on his face, answered by a grin on Phil's. The last vestiges of the cold and dark night that had brought him here had vanished.

“I should warn you, I can go on about this topic for a long time.”

“Good.” Phil nodded vigorously. “I want to hear more. I was planning to stay here until dawn. Would you like to keep me company and watch the sun rise together?”

“Yeah,” said Dan. He felt that was all he needed to say.

Phil stood up, and rested his hand on Dan's shoulder briefly as he headed back to the counter.

“I'll make us some proper coffee.”

Christmas morning, when it came, was still very cold, and still very snowy. The weather still dictated a ridiculous amount of clothing just to venture outside. And it continued to be imperative that delicate electronics like phones be kept next to warm flesh in order to keep their electrons moving. But the sun was out, shining on Christmas trees and snow sculptures, on birds searching for seeds under feeders, and on two men, walking through the sparkling world together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to my amazing beta [tiny-winter-cupcake](https://tiny-winter-cupcake.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> I started out intending to satisfy only one of my recipient's prompts, but wound up using all three! The strangers meeting story inevitably involved a coffee shop, and I really wanted to write about how it can get so cold that your phone can die.
> 
> **CanDanAndPhilNot** 's prompts:
> 
> **Prompt One:** I’m a sucker for coffee shop AUs.
> 
> **Prompt Two:** Two Lonely Strangers on Christmas. I love the thought of D&P being lonely on Christmas and finding each other to spend the holiday with.
> 
> **Prompt Three:** Surprise Me! If you have something you’ve been wanting to write I’ll gladly read it. I’m sure it will be lovely.
> 
> Also, I thought, hey, let's have a song title, and I was listening to Pentatonix, little knowing that I was listening to a Kanye song. Oh, well!


End file.
